A Look Back at the White House Easter Egg Roll

The annual White House Easter Egg Roll goes back a very long time. The playful game, which involves pushing an egg through the grass with a spoon, officially started on the White House grounds in 1878 when President Hayes moved the event from the Capitol and hosted all of Washington for the occasion. Through the years, there were different variations on the original activity like egg croquet and egg picking. In fact, the actual egg race wasn’t instituted until the Nixon administration in 1974. Since then, it’s become the largest annual public White House event of the year. Though it’s always been messy (it can take the groundskeepers weeks to clean up the chocolate, jelly beans, shells, and yolk), it’s a time-honored tradition that every president, Republican or Democrat, can smile about together—a real holiday miracle in current politics.

Above, a look back at the most adorable moments from the White House Easter Egg Rolls, the early years and today.